MacAskill urged to intervene over jailed Kurdish leader- Civil liberties group Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC) has today written to Holyrood justice minister Kenny MacAskill urging him to intervene with the Turkish Government over the fate of jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. Ocalan has been held in isolation for 10 years in a specially built island prison. SACC says in its letter to MacAskill:
"We ask you, as a Minister who has recently stood up for showing compassion to the extremely ill prisoner, Mr Abdelbaset ali Al-Megrahi, to write to the Turkish Minister of Justice Mr Sadullah Ergin, requesting that he follows your example and accords Mr Ocalan the dignity and human rights that he deserves. Only then can Turkey make a clear statement that it is worthy of being part of a Union that champions Human Rights." (see below for the full text of the letter).
The isolation and ill-treatment of Abdullah Ocalan violates rights to which everyone is entitled, whatever crimes they have committed and whatever political views they hold. But it does more than that. It is a deliberate attempt by the Turkish state to prevent Ocalan acting as an intermediary for a peaceful solution to the long-standing conflict over the status of Turkey's Kurdish community. Sections of the Turkish establishment still seem to be trying to manufacture a bloody military solution to Turkey's Kurdish question, and they appear to be gaining the upper hand in Turkish Government circles. Scotland must make it clear that it stands up for human rights and that it won't give a green light to a new round of repression of Turkey's Kurdish minority.The Democratic Society Party (DTP), a pro-Kurdish party with 21 members in the Turkish Grand Assembly, was outlawed on Friday by Turkey's Constitutional Court. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) - a group set up under Ocalan's leadership in 1984 - is banned in Turkey and has been banned in Britain since 2001.
Background
Abdullah Ocalan is perhaps the world's best-known political prisoner. He is the founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and is still regarded by a majority of Kurdish people living in Turkey or having ties with Turkey as their undisputed leader. He was handed over to the Republic of Turkey in February 1999 following a clandestine operation backed by an alliance of secret services directed by their corresponding governments. Ocalan was then tried on charges of "treason and separatism" under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code and was sentenced to death on 29 June 1999 by a State Security Court (DGM). His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
Ocalan has been held since his capture in a special prison on Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of Marmaris, where he is guarded by around 1000 soldiers. Until November this year he was the only prisoner on the island. Five other prisoners were then transferred to the island in response to international complaints about Ocalan's isolation. But Ocalan has so far not been allowed to meet his fellow-prisoners. Other recent changes in the circumstances of Ocalan's incarceration have, according to his lawyers, worsened his situation. For example, he has been moved to a new cell where he says - despite Turkish assertions to the contrary - that he has about half the space he had in his old cell.
Abdullah Ocalan's submission to the European Court of Human Rights went far beyond conventional legal testimony and included a wide-ranging analysis of the state of civilisation in the Middle East. It has been available in book form ("Prison writings: the roots of civilisation" by Abdullah Ocalan) since 2007.
In 2005 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ocalan had not received a fair trial in Turkey and that he is entitled to a re-tral. But under present Turkish law a re-trial is only possible for cases where European Court of Human Rights reached a judgement by 04.02.2003 and for those cases where application to the European Court of Human Rights was lodged after 04.02.2003. This excludes the possibility of a re-trial for Abdullah Ocalan.
On 19 October this year, following an initiative from Ocalan, PKK fighters based in Iraq sent peace groups into Turkey, where they received a rapturous weclome from Turkish Kurds. Plans to send a further peace group from the Kurdish diaspora in Europe were abandoned after comments from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to signal that the door for negotiations had closed.
On Friday 11 December, Turkey's Constitutional Court issued a ruling to close down the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), which has 21 members in the Turkish Grand Assembly.
With obstacles piling up daily on the path to peace, it would be a small gleam of light if Turkey were to at least respect the human rights of Abdullah Ocalan.
SACC letter to Kenny MacAskill
The full text of the letter appears below:
Imprisonment and ill-treatment of Abdullah Ocalan
From: Scotland Against Criminalising Communities
Dear Mr MacAskill,
We would like to draw your attention to the case of Mr Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned in solitary confinement since 1999. Mr Ocalan has been held on the Imrali island prison in Turkey.
Mr Ocalan’s health has seriously deteriorated in the last few months and we feel that the authorities in Turkey - a prospective member country of the European Union – are displaying a level of inhumanity unacceptable in a modern society.
An early day motion (No. 396) has been tabled in the Westminster Parliament condemning Mr Ocalan’s treatment and has been signed by one of your colleagues, Angus MacNeil MP. The text of the EDM is noted below
We ask you, as a Minister who has recently stood up for showing compassion to the extremely ill prisoner, Mr Abdelbaset ali Al-Megrahi, to write to the Turkish Minister of Justice Mr Sadullah Ergin, requesting that he follows your example and accords Mr Ocalan the dignity and human rights that he deserves. Only then can Turkey make a clear statement that it is worthy of being part of a Union that champions Human Rights.
We would be grateful if you could let us know what action you will be taking about this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC)
EDM 396
IMPRISONMENT OF ABDULLAH OCALAN
8.12.09
That this House acknowledges the inhumane conditions of imprisonment endured by Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan under solitary confinement since 1999 on the Imrali island prison in the Mamara sea, Turkey; regrets Ocalan's deleterious mental and physical condition suffered as a result of his inhumane conditions of imprisonment since that time; notes that these conditions have included allegations in 1997 of heavy metal poisoning and that the existence of exceptionally high levels of heavy metals in Ocalan's blood was evidenced by laboratory reports and confirmed by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT); supports the findings of the CPT that Ocalan's conditions of imprisonment contravene international law on the rights of the prisoner, and the CPT's recommendations that Ocalan be moved; further regrets that in moving Ocalan to a new prison, Turkey has provided conditions of imprisonment significantly worse than before; further notes the new conditions of imprisonment including the fact that the cell is half the size of that in which he was previously held and lacks air circulation, thus causing Ocalan severe breathing difficulties and loss of bodily functions; further notes reports from Ocalan and his lawyers that the current conditions are seriously deleterious to his health and life; urges the UK Government to request the CPT urgently to conduct a visit and inspection; and further urges the UK Government to put the utmost diplomatic pressure on Turkey to provide humane conditions of imprisonment to Ocalan.
2. More about Abdullah Ocalan's prison conditions
See the report (7 December 2009) by "International Initiative Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan – Peace in Kurdistan" at
http://www.freedom-for-ocalan.com/english/download/initiative-analysis-02.pdf
